By Ben Leubsdorf
The Concord Monitor
SALISBURY, N.H. — A Salisbury volunteer firefighter has been charged with reckless conduct for bringing a powerful pipe bomb to his house and trying to disassemble it before calling the police, authorities said yesterday.
Walter Scott Jr., 59, was arrested last Saturday, the Salisbury police said. He is free on $4,000 personal recognizance bail and is scheduled to be arraigned June 28 in Franklin District Court on the misdemeanor.
Scott found the bomb somewhere in Franklin on March 16 and took it to his home at 455 Old Turnpike Road in Salisbury, police Chief Frank Jones said.
Scott apparently tried to tinker with or disassemble the device before calling the police and asking Jones to “come there to talk to him about it,” the chief said yesterday.
Officers responded about 4 p.m. from Salisbury, Andover and Boscawen along with firefighters, emergency medical personnel and the state police. The state police bomb squad examined the device, which was then disabled with a water cannon.
Old Turnpike Road, also known as Route 4, was shut down for about five hours during the incident. No one was hurt.
Jones said he wasn’t able to determine where Scott got the bomb, who built it or why Scott brought it home. He said the device was complete except for a fuse, and it was powerful.
“This could have potentially destroyed a home, easily,” Jones said.
Scott has been a volunteer firefighter in Salisbury since at least 1998, said fire Chief Rick Gilman.
Scott has not been suspended from duty, Gilman said, but could face discipline.
“We’re dealing with that internally” and with the Salisbury selectmen, Gilman said.
A message seeking comment was left for Scott yesterday.
The investigation took two months to yield an arrest because Salisbury has a small police department, Jones said. He is one of two part-time officers on the force.
“We’re not here every day,” Jones said. “The investigation was very time-consuming. The device itself had to be looked into; there were interviews.”
Copyright 2010 Concord Monitor/Sunday Monitor